Secret Base of César
That place was unlike any other goblin lair.
There were no chaotic shouts or constant fights. There was no irrational fear or forced obedience in the air. There were the true goblins: those who followed César not by instinct or terror, but because they recognized him as their absolute leader.
It was not just strength.
It was control.
"Ninety-nine…
one hundred…"
César completed the final push-up and slowly rose to his feet, letting out the breath he had been holding. Sweat ran over his green skin as his breathing gradually steadied.
He approached a small sheet of water that had formed among the rocks and observed his distorted reflection.
Compared to other goblins, his body was different. The prominent belly had almost disappeared, his muscles were beginning to show, and his figure no longer looked like that of a scrawny, clumsy creature.
'It seems the daily training of one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten-kilometer run… is really paying off.'
His gaze dropped a few centimeters lower.
'Too bad I was already bald before I started…'
He frowned for a second, then let out a low, resigned laugh.
'Bah… the order of the factors doesn't change the product.'
The reason he trained was not purely physical.
He sought aura.
He had not forgotten his true objective: to create the ester core, the perfect fusion between mana and aura. Although he still possessed neither a mana core nor an aura core, that did not mean he lacked them.
Every living being had mana; before it condensed into a core, it was simply dispersed throughout the body. The same applied to aura: it had to be forged through extreme training, until the body learned to generate it naturally.
That was the path of aura warriors.
And César had already taken the first step.
Just as he was catching his breath again, he sensed a presence.
Sasha had approached without making a sound.
The gnoll was watching his body with a dangerous mix of resentment and poorly concealed desire, absentmindedly stroking her own flat abdomen. Beneath the shadow of the tree where César trained, an unsettling glint burned in her eyes.
He had noticed her from the very first moment.
And, to his misfortune, he had also noticed that look.
A shiver ran down his spine… followed by a very specific pain in his waist.
'Maybe hypnotizing her wasn't my best decision.'
César still did not want children. Not until he and his women formally walked the path of magic. He wanted to see whether, that way, his offspring would be born with superior innate talent.
Sasha possessed a surprising amount of mana, even without a core. It was a shame she lacked a proper cultivation system, though that was not unusual. Across the entire continent, only dark elves and lycanthropes possessed that knowledge.
And, fortunately, his mother belonged to the latter.
As he thought about it, his gaze shifted to another nearby figure.
Lina.
As a female goblin and companion… she was closer to Sasha than he had anticipated.
As he observed Lina's curves, he could not help but lose himself in his thoughts, in the tragic future of the Devilmen.
Before the appearance of monstrous crystals, there had been a small but steady number of devil-human women in every settlement. Everything had changed afterward.
'The evil gods made another move.'
They had ensured eternal enmity between humans and devil-humans, preventing the latter from reproducing freely and forcing them to kidnap women from other races.
Although, to be honest, that probably would have happened even without divine intervention. The imbalance between males and females had always pushed devil-humans in that direction.
Lycanthropes and dark elves knew this well.
César snapped back to reality when he noticed the hungry gazes of Sasha and Lina.
In some respects, both were even more goblin than he was when it came to desire. Insatiable.
If not for his self-control, they would have already crossed a dangerous line.
'When everything is ready… when I have all the goblins under my command… then I will plan to create an army of children.'
With that thought, César returned to his training.
The next day
"Choose this place."
César's voice was firm as he pointed to a stretch of flat, dry land near the secondary entrance of the cave.
The goblins obeyed without question.
They gathered branches, cut and sharpened them, turning them into stakes. The work advanced quickly and efficiently, very different from the usual chaos of an ordinary goblin tribe.
In the afternoon, one of his brothers returned with company.
"Boss, I'm back!"
He was the most robust of the group. César had named him Goby. Upon discovering that goblins usually did not have names, he decided to give them himself to facilitate control… and hierarchy.
Goby and his group brought with them three female rats, bound and struggling.
César observed their size and nodded in satisfaction.
"Perfect for breeding."
"Put them in the corral."
The enclosure, built near the cave and surrounded by a wooden fence, was already finished. When the rats were released inside, they began to run desperately, crashing against the fence.
"Good work, Goby," César said calmly.
"You have the right to reproduce first."
The goblin nearly trembled with excitement.
"Boss… I… I'm going!"
He laughed in a nasty way and lunged toward the corral, while the other goblins watched with open envy.
César merely smiled.
Then he turned to look for Sasha and Lina.
As he walked, he noticed something curious: female goblins seemed slightly larger than the males.
An interesting detail.
Remembering Goby's enthusiasm, César frowned. For him, the idea of mating with a rat was simply unbearable.
But his soldiers were goblins.
And goblins followed their instincts.
As he advanced toward the wooden house, an old memory surfaced in his mind: the first woman he had seen upon arriving in this world.
'My mother locked herself away, determined to carve her own path and form her core. I can only hope that, this time, she succeeds.'
But then, a doubt arose.
César narrowed his eyes.
The gnolls' attack had not drawn the Goblin King's attention. Nor had he encountered him when infiltrating the breeding grounds.
Everything was far too strange.
His father.
'As his son… I will have to help him return to the right path.'
After all, he could not afford to waste a Goblin King.